Microarrow sensor array with enhanced skin adhesion for transdermal continuous monitoring of glucose and reactive oxygen species

Conventional blood sampling for glucose detection is prone to cause pain and fails to continuously record glucose fluctuations in vivo.Continuous glucose monitoring based on implantable electrodes could induce pain and potential tissue inflammation,and the presence of reactive oxygen species(ROS)due to inflammationmay affect glucose detection.Microneedle technology is less invasive,yet microneedle adhesion with skin tissue is limited.In this work,we developed a microarrow sensor array(MASA),which provided enhanced skin surface adhesion and enabled simultaneous detection of glucose and H_(2)O_(2)(representative of ROS)in interstitial fluid in vivo.The microarrows fabricated via laser micromachining were modified with functional coating and integrated into a patch of a three-dimensional(3D)microneedle array.Due to the arrow tip mechanically interlocking with the tissue,the microarrow array could better adhere to the skin surface after penetration into skin.The MASA was demonstrated to provide continuous in vivo monitoring of glucose and H_(2)O_(2) concentrations,with the detection of H_(2)O_(2) providing a valuable reference for assessing the inflammation state.Finally,the MASA was integrated into a monitoring system using custom circuitry.This work provides a promising tool for the stable and reliable monitoring of blood glucose in diabetic patients.

Evolution of anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnetic Weyl semimetal Nb_(x)Zr_(1-x)Co_(2)Sn

Magnetic topological semimetal can host various topological non-trivial states leading to exotic novel transport properties.Here we report the systematic magneto-transport studies on the Heusler alloy Nb_(x)Zr_(1-x)Co_(2)Sn considered as a ferromagnetic(FM)Weyl semimetal.The cusp anomaly of temperature-dependent resistivity and large isotropic negative magneto-resistivity(MR)emerge around the FM transition consistent with the theoretical half-metallic predictions.The prominent anomalous Hall effect(AHE)has the same behavior with the applied field along various crystal directions.The Nb doping introduces more disorder resulting in the enhancement of the upturn for the temperature-dependent resistivity in low temperatures.With Nb doping,the AHE exhibits systemic evolution with the Fermi level lifted.At the doping level of x=0.25,the AHE mainly originates from the intrinsic contribution related to non-trivial topological Weyl states.

Optical study of magnetic topological insulator MnBi_(4)Te_7

We present an infrared spectroscopy study of the magnetic topological insulator MnBi_(4)Te_7 with antiferromagnetic(AFM) order below the Neel temperature TN= 13 K. Our investigation reveals that the low-frequency optical conductivity consists of two Drude peaks, indicating a response of free carriers involving multiple bands. Interestingly, the narrow Drude peak grows strongly as the temperature decreases, while the broad Drude peak remains relatively unchanged. The onset of interband transitions starts around 2000 cm^(-1), followed by two prominent absorption peaks around 10000 cm^(-1) and 20000 cm^(-1). Upon cooling, there is a notable transfer of spectral weight from the interband transitions to the Drude response. Below TN, the AFM transition gives rise to small anomalies of the charge response due to a band reconstruction.These findings provide valuable insights into the interplay between magnetism and the electronic properties in MnBi_(4)Te_7.

Two Monte Carlo-based simulators for imaging-system modeling and projection simulation of flat-panel X-ray source

The advantages of a flat-panel X-ray source(FPXS)make it a promising candidate for imaging applications.Accurate imaging-system modeling and projection simulation are critical for analyzing imaging performance and resolving overlapping projection issues in FPXS.The conventional analytical ray-tracing approach is limited by the number of patterns and is not applicable to FPXS-projection calculations.However,the computation time of Monte Carlo(MC)simulation is independent of the size of the patterned arrays in FPXS.This study proposes two high-efficiency MC projection simulators for FPXS:a graphics processing unit(GPU)-based phase-space sampling MC(gPSMC)simulator and GPU-based fluence sampling MC(gFSMC)simulator.The two simulators comprise three components:imaging-system modeling,photon initialization,and physical-interaction simulations in the phantom.Imaging-system modeling was performed by modeling the FPXS,imaging geometry,and detector.The gPSMC simulator samples the initial photons from the phase space,whereas the gFSMC simulator performs photon initialization from the calculated energy spectrum and fluence map.The entire process of photon interaction with the geometry and arrival at the detector was simulated in parallel using multiple GPU kernels,and projections based on the two simulators were calculated.The accuracies of the two simulators were evaluated by comparing them with the conventional analytical ray-tracing approach and acquired projections,and the efficiencies were evaluated by comparing the computation time.The results of simulated and realistic experiments illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed gPSMC and gFSMC simulators in the projection calculation of various phantoms.

Semi-implantable device based on multiplexed microfilament electrode cluster for continuous monitoring of physiological ions

Modern medicine is increasingly interested in advanced sensors to detect and analyze biochemical indicators.Ion sensors based on potentiometric methods are a promising platform for monitoring physiological ions in biological subjects.Current semi-implantable devices are mainly based on single-parameter detection.Miniaturized semi-implantable electrodes for multiparameter sensing have more restrictions on the electrode size due to biocompatibility considerations,but reducing the electrode surface area could potentially limit electrode sensitivity.This study developed a semi-implantable device system comprising a multiplexed microfilament electrode cluster(MMEC)and a printed circuit board for real-time monitoring of intra-tissue K^(+),Ca^(2+),and Na^(+)concentrations.The electrode surface area was less important for the potentiometric sensing mechanism,suggesting the feasibility of using a tiny fiber-like electrode for potentiometric sensing.The MMEC device exhibited a broad linear response(K^(+):2–32 mmol/L;Ca^(2+):0.5–4 mmol/L;Na^(+):10–160 mmol/L),high sensitivity(about 20–45 mV/decade),temporal stability(>2weeks),and good selectivity(>80%)for the above ions.In vitro detection and in vivo subcutaneous and brain experiment results showed that the MMEC system exhibits good multi-ion monitoring performance in several complex environments.This work provides a platform for the continuous real-time monitoring of ion fluctuations in different situations and has implications for developing smart sensors to monitor human health.

Electrochemical and colorimetric dual-signal detection of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B based on AuPt bimetallic nanoparticles loaded Fe-N-C single atom nanocomposite

Sensitive detection of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B(SEB)is of importance for preventing food poisoning from threatening human health.In this work,an electrochemical and colorimetric dual-signal detection assay of SEB was developed.The probe(Ab2/AuPt@Fe-N-C)was bound to SEB captured by Ab1,where the Ab2/AuPt@Fe-N-C triggered methylene blue degradation and resulted in the decrease of electrochemical signal.Furthermore,the probe catalyzed the oxidation of 3,3’,5,5’-tetramethyl biphenyl to generate a colorimetric absorbance at 652 nm.Once the target was captured and formed a sandwich-like complex,the color changed from colorless to blue.SEB detection by colorimetric and electrochemical methods showed a linear relationship in the concentration ranges of 0.0002-10.0000 and 0.0005-10.0000 ng/mL,with limits of detection of 0.0667 and 0.1670 pg/mL,respectively.The dual-signal biosensor was successfully used to detect SEB in milk and water samples,which has great potential in toxin detection in food and the environment.

Design of AI-Enhanced and Hardware-Supported Multimodal E-Skin for Environmental Object Recognition and Wireless Toxic Gas Alarm

Post-earthquake rescue missions are full of challenges due to the unstable structure of ruins and successive aftershocks.Most of the current rescue robots lack the ability to interact with environments,leading to low rescue efficiency.The multimodal electronic skin(e-skin)proposed not only reproduces the pressure,temperature,and humidity sensing capabilities of natural skin but also develops sensing functions beyond it—perceiving object proximity and NO2 gas.Its multilayer stacked structure based on Ecoflex and organohydrogel endows the e-skin with mechanical properties similar to natural skin.Rescue robots integrated with multimodal e-skin and artificial intelligence(AI)algorithms show strong environmental perception capabilities and can accurately distinguish objects and identify human limbs through grasping,laying the foundation for automated post-earthquake rescue.Besides,the combination of e-skin and NO2 wireless alarm circuits allows robots to sense toxic gases in the environment in real time,thereby adopting appropriate measures to protect trapped people from the toxic environment.Multimodal e-skin powered by AI algorithms and hardware circuits exhibits powerful environmental perception and information processing capabilities,which,as an interface for interaction with the physical world,dramatically expands intelligent robots’application scenarios.

Rare Earth Luminescent Materials for White LED Solid State Lighting

Solid-state white LED will be a new generation of energy-saving light source in 21 century. In order to emitting white light, one of important approaches is using luminescence conversion technology with rare earth phosphors, which can be excited by the 460 nm blue light or 400 nm near violet light emitted from the InGaN chip and then emit white light. The rare earths doped phosphors prepared by us such as YAG ： Ce^3＋, Ca1-xSrxS ： Eu^2＋, Ga2S3 ： Eu^2＋, MGa2S4：Eu^2＋ （M = Ca, Sr, Ba）, SrGa2＋xS4＋y ：Eu^2＋,（Ca1 - xSrx ） Se ： Eu^2 ＋ , SrLaGaaS6O ： Eu^2 ＋ , （ M1, M2 ） 10 （PO4）6XE（M1 = Ca, Sr, Ba; Ms = Eu, Mn; X = F, Cl, Br） and NaEu0.92 Sm0.08 （MoO4）5 were reported. They emit blue, green, yellow or red color light. Some white LEDs were made by these phosphors with blue or near violet InGaN chips and their chromaticity coordinate （x, y）, correlated color temperature Tc, and color rendering index Ra are reported.

Correlation dynamics of two-parameter qubit-qutrit states under decoherence

We investigate the dynamics of correlations for two-parameter qubit--qutrit states under various local decoherence channels including depalising, phase-flip, bit- and trit-flip, bit- and trit-phase-flip, and depolarizing channels. We find that, under certain conditions, the classical： correlations may not be affected by the noise or decay monotonically. The quantum correlations measured by measurement-induced disturbance （MID） show three types of dynamical behaviors： （i） monotonic ＇decay to zero, （ii） monotOniC decay to a nonzero steady value, （iii） increase from zero and then decrease to zero in a monotonic way. Consequently, we find that, differing from the dynamics of entanglement, the present classical and quantum correlations do not reveal sudden death behavior.

A fast and in-depth self-reconstruction of anion ligands optimized CoFe-based pre-catalysts for water oxidation

The design of efficient and robust non-precious metal electrocatalysts towards oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is of great value for developing green energy technologies.The in-situ formed high-valence(oxy)hydroxides species during the reconstruction process of pre-catalysts are recognized as the real contributing sites for OER.However,pre-catalysts generally undergo a slow and inadequate self-reconstruction.Herein,we reported a PO^(3-)_(4)optimized CoFe-based OER catalysts with amorphous structure,which enables a fast and deep reconstruction during the OER process.The amorphous structure induced by ligands PO^(3-)_(4)is prone to evolution and further form active species for OER.The electron interaction between metal sites can be modulated by electron-rich PO^(3-)_(4),which promotes generation of high active CoOOH.Simultaneously,the etching of PO^(3-)_(4)from the pre-catalysts during the catalytic process is in favor of accelerating the self-reconstruction.As a result,as-prepared precatalyst can generate high active CoOOH at a low potential of 1.4 V and achieve an in-depth reconstructed nanosheet structure with abundant OER active sites.Our work provides a promising design of pre-catalysts for realizing efficient catalysis of water oxidation.

Anti-Corrosion and Reconstruction of Surface Crystal Plane for Zn Anodes by an Advanced Metal Passivation Technique

For the aqueous Zn-ion battery,dendrite formation,corrosion,and interfacial parasitic reactions are major issues,which greatly inhibits their practical application.How to develop a method of Zn construction or treatment to solve these issues for Zn anodes are still great challenges.Herein,a simple and cheap metal passivation technique is proposed for Zn anodes from a corrosion science perspective.Similar to the metal anticorrosion engineering,the formed interfacial protective layer in a chemical way can sufficiently solve the corrosion issues.Furthermore,the proposed passivity approach can reconstruct Zn surface-preferred crystal planes,exposing more(002)planes and improving surface hydrophilicity,which inhibits the formation of Zn dendrites and hydrogen evolution effectively.As expected,the passivated Zn achieves outstanding cycling life(1914 h)with low voltage polarization(<40 mV).Even at 6 mA cm^(−2) and 3 mA h cm^(−2),it can achieve stable Zn deposition over 460 h.The treated Zn anode coupled with MnO_(2) cathode shows prominently reinforced full batteries service life,making it a potential Zn anode candidate for excellent performance aqueous Zn-ion batteries.The proposed passivation approach provides a guideline for other metal electrodes preparation in various batteries and establishes the connections between corrosion science and batteries.

Characterization Method of Polycrystalline Materials Using Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy

An apparatus for characterization of polycrystalline materials based on conductive atomic torce microscopy （cAFM） is developed and a quantitative measurement of electrical characteristics of individual grains in polycrystalline ZnO ceramic is demonstrated. Improvement of the experimental method is presented. Experimental results illuminate unambiguously the different electrical characteristics between individual grains, suggesting the suitability and maneuverability of this method in the study of local structure or properties and their relationship in polycrystalline materials such as semi-conducting ceramics.

Distribution of donor states on the surface of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

The uniform distribution model of the surface donor states in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures has been widely used in the theoretical calculation.A common and a triple-channel AlGaN/GaN heterostructure Schottky barrier diodes have been fabricated to verify the models,but the calculation results show the uniform distribution model can not provide enough electrons to form three separate 2DEGs in the triple-channel Al GaN/GaN heterostructure.Our experiments indicate the uniform distribution model is not quite right,especially for the multiple-channel AlGaN/GaN heterostructures.Besides,it is found the exponential distribution model possibly matches the actual distribution of the surface donor states better,which allows the 2DEG to form in each channel structure during the calculation.The exponential distribution model would be helpful in the research field.

Cluster mean-field study of spinor Bose-Hubbard ladder:Ground-state phase diagram and many-body population dynamics

We present a cluster mean-field study for ground-state phase diagram and many-body dynamics of spin-1 bosons confined in a two-chain Bose-Hubbard ladder(BHL).For unbiased BHL,we find superfluid(SF)phase and integer filling Mott insulator(Int MI)phase.For biased BHL,in addition to the SF and Int MI phases,there appears half-integer filling Mott insulator(HInt MI)phase.The phase transition between the SF and Int MI phases can be first order at a part of phase boundaries,while the phase transition between the SF and HInt MI phases is always second order.By tuning the bias energy,we report on the change of the nature of SF-MI phase transitions.Furthermore,we study the effect of the spin-dependent interaction on the many-body population dynamics.The spin-dependent interaction can lead to rich dynamical behaviors,but does not influence the particle transfer efficiency.Our results indicate a way to tune the nature of the SF-MI phase transition and open a new avenue to study the many-body dynamics of spinor bosons in optical lattices.

One-Step Generation of Multiqubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger States in a Driven Circuit QED System

We propose an efficient scheme to generate multiqubit Greenberger-ttorne--Zeilinger （GHZ） states by one- step quantum operation in a driven circuit quantum electrodyna.mics （QED） system. Our proposal is based on a unitary evolution exp[-iλSx^2], with Sx being the collective spin operator in x direction and A a controllable parameter, induced by driving the resonator. The quantum operation avoids resonator-field decay and may achieve the GHZ states with ideal success probability. The feasibility with the experimentally-demonstrated circuit QED system is also discussed.

Melting of electronic/excitonic crystals in 2D semiconductor moirépatterns:A perspective from the Lindemann criterion

Using the Lindemann criterion,we analyzed the quantum and thermal melting of electronic/excitonic crystals recently discovered in two-dimensional(2D)semiconductor moirépatterns.We show that the finite 2D screening of the atomically thin material can suppress(enhance)the inter-site Coulomb(dipolar)interaction strength,thus inhibits(facilitates)the formation of the electronic(excitonic)crystal.Meanwhile,a strong enough moiréconfinement is found to be essential for realizing the crystal phase with a wavelength near 10 nm or shorter.From the calculated Lindemann ratio which quantifies the fluctuation of the site displacement,we estimate that the crystal will melt into a liquid above a critical temperature ranging from several tens Kelvin to above 100 K(depending on the system parameters).

Combination of density-clustering and supervised classification for event identification in single-molecule force spectroscopy data

Single-molecule force spectroscopy(SMFS)measurements of the dynamics of biomolecules typically require identifying massive events and states from large data sets,such as extracting rupture forces from force-extension curves(FECs)in pulling experiments and identifying states from extension-time trajectories(ETTs)in force-clamp experiments.The former is often accomplished manually and hence is time-consuming and laborious while the latter is always impeded by the presence of baseline drift.In this study,we attempt to accurately and automatically identify the events and states from SMFS experiments with a machine learning approach,which combines clustering and classification for event identification of SMFS(ACCESS).As demonstrated by analysis of a series of data sets,ACCESS can extract the rupture forces from FECs containing multiple unfolding steps and classify the rupture forces into the corresponding conformational transitions.Moreover,ACCESS successfully identifies the unfolded and folded states even though the ETTs display severe nonmonotonic baseline drift.Besides,ACCESS is straightforward in use as it requires only three easy-to-interpret parameters.As such,we anticipate that ACCESS will be a useful,easy-to-implement and high-performance tool for event and state identification across a range of single-molecule experiments.

Signatures of Temperature-Driven Lifshitz Transition in Semimetal Hafnium Ditelluride

Temperature-driven change of Fermi surface has been attracting attention recently as it is fundamental and essential to understand a metallic system.We report the magnetotransport anomalies in the semimetal HfTe_(2) single crystals.The magnetoresistance behavior at high temperatures obeys Kohler's rule which can lead to the field-induced resistivity upturn behavior as observed.When the temperature is decreased to around 30 K,Kohler's rule becomes inapplicable,indicating the change of the Fermi surface in HfTe_(2).The Hall analyses and extended Kohler's plot reveal abrupt change of carrier densities and mobilities near 30 K.These results suggest that the chemical potential may shift as the temperature increases and the shift causes an electron pocket to vanish.Our work of the temperature-driven Lifshitz transition in HfTe_(2) is relevant to understanding of the transport anomalies and exotic physical properties in transition-metal dichalcogenides.

Exact Calculation of Local Density of States in Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystals

An exact calculation method of local density of states （LDOS） in two-dimensional （2D） photonic crystals （PCs） is presented. In order to calculate the LDOS, the eigen-equation of magnetic field is first solved by the plane-wave expansion method, then the eigen-modes of electric-field are obtained. There are two different ways to solve the eigen-equantion of magnetic field and three different ways to obtain the eigen-modes of the electric-field. In comparison of the numerical results from these different ways, an exact and fast method for calculating the LDOS in PCs is found. With use of this method, we investigate the LDOS of the 2D PCs consisting of a triangular lattice of cylinders. The results show the large LDOS is favorable to reside in higher dielectric-constant medium in high frequency region, rather than in lower dielectric-constant medium.

Flexible, Transparent and Conductive Metal Mesh Films with Ultra‑High FoM for Stretchable Heating and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding

Despite the growing demand for transparent conductive films in smart and wearable electronics for electromagnetic interference(EMI)shielding,achieving a flexible EMI shielding film,while maintaining a high transmittance remains a significant challenge.Herein,a flexible,transparent,and conductive copper(Cu)metal mesh film for EMI shielding is fabricated by self-forming crackle template method and electroplating technique.The Cu mesh film shows an ultra-low sheet resistance(0.18Ω□^(-1)),high transmittance(85.8%@550 nm),and ultra-high figure of merit(>13,000).It also has satisfactory stretchability and mechanical stability,with a resistance increases of only 1.3%after 1,000 bending cycles.As a stretchable heater(ε>30%),the saturation temperature of the film can reach over 110°C within 60 s at 1.00 V applied voltage.Moreover,the metal mesh film exhibits outstanding average EMI shielding effectiveness of 40.4 dB in the X-band at the thickness of 2.5μm.As a demonstration,it is used as a transparent window for shielding the wireless communication electromagnetic waves.Therefore,the flexible and transparent conductive Cu mesh film proposed in this work provides a promising candidate for the next-generation EMI shielding applications.